Gold & Copper Slump on Renewed Euro Zone Worries (GLD, GDX, SLV, IAU, ABX, NGD, EGO, AEM, PAAS, HL, AXU, COPX, FCX, TGB, SCCO)

Published on Monday, 12 December 2011 11:03 Written by Paul Oldrini

New York, December 12^th (TradersHuddle.com) – Gold and Copper edged sharply lower on Monday on renewed concerns even after Europe secured a historic agreement on Friday. Investors are still jittery over this weekend’s trade balance data that pointed to an industrial slowdown. China posted a shrinking trade surplus, with the weakest exports since 2009.

Gold futures for February delivery slumped $51, or 2.92%, to $1,666 an ounce in electronic trading during the early European trading day, breaching an important physiological support $ 1700.

Equities slumped on Monday after Moody’s Investors Service commented that solutions announced at last week’s European Union summit shows little new in battling against the sovereign-debt crisis, and credit ratios in the region remain under stress.

Gold prices also slid on lingering worries about the demand given sharp fall in China’s inflation and India trimmed its growth estimates for the financial year ending March 2012.

The U.S. dollar index, a measure of the greenback against six major global counterparts, jumped to 79.32 from 78.622 in North American trade Friday.

Copper prices also slid to its 2-week on demand worries. Copper failed to cheered positive news from China, which reported sharp jump in imports, reaching its highest level since March 2010.

Copper is trading lower by 2.74% to $346/lb. Among other precious metals, the March contract for silver SI2H slumped $1.24, or 3.84%, to $31.02 an ounce and palladium futures for the same month fell $30.20, or 4.40%, to $657 an ounce. January platinum prices slid $31.10, or 2.05%, to $1,484.70 an ounce.

SPDR Gold Trust (ETF)  (NYSE:GLD) fell 5.05 (-3.03%) to $161.35.  Market Vectors Etf Trust  (NYSE:GDX) fell 2.27 (-3.93%) to $55.54, iShares Silver Trust (ETF) (NYSE:SLV) fell 1.22 (-3.89%) and iShares Gold Trust(ETF) (NYSE:IAU) declined 3%.

Barrick Gold  (USA)  (NYSE:ABX) lost 3.29%, New Gold   (AMEX:NGD) slumped 4.26% and Eldorado Gold (NYSE:EGO) slumped 5.42%. Agnico-Eagle Mines  (NYSE:AEM) also declined 4.33%.

Pan American Silver  (NASDAQ:PAAS) lost 4.24 %, Hecla Mining  (NYSE:HL) eased 5.43% to $6.09. Alexco Resource (AMEX:AXU) is bucking trend and gained 5.85%.

Global X Copper Miners ETF  (NYSE:COPX) is trading lower by 4.16%. Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold    (NYSE:FCX) is down 3.60% to $38.30, Taseko Mines (AMEX:TGB) lost 4.67%. Southern Copper  (USA)(NYSE:SCCO) is also falling over 3%.